Heart recipient to marry donor's sister

'I was so thankful for this person I couldn't stop crying'

Published: 02/19/2013 at 11:06 AM

(WEST SEATTLE HERALD) — A heart has two functions in the human experience. There is the physical side (the engine that pumps blood throughout our bodies) and the less-scientifically bound belief that our hearts guide us in love.
In this rare case, the heart’s two functions have merged.

It’s the story of a young West Seattle man named Kellen Roberts who left his family too soon, passing away at the age of 22 in 2005.

Halfway across the country, a 17-year-old boy named Connor Rabinowitz was going through high school in Minnesota, well on his way to receiving a full ride baseball scholarship to college when he went to the doctor for a medical exam, and everything changed.

Connor was told he was in dire need of a heart transplant due to a genetic disease that enlarged and weakened his most crucial of organs. He needed a new heart, the doctors said, or he would not survive.